Patient-Derived Liver Cancer Organoid Model

The liver is a digestive organ that only exists in vertebrates and plays many essential biological roles in the digestion and growth process. Liver cancer can be primary or have metastasized from elsewhere to the liver, including a series of different types, among which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent one. With the establishment of 3D organoid model platform, Creative Biolabs is able to accelerating global customers’ research on liver cancer mechanisms and the development of preclinical therapeutic strategies using our patient-derived liver cancer organoid model.

Fig.1 Establishment of HCC PDOs in vitro. (Wang, 2020)

Shortcomings of Common Models

Although 2D cultures are still valuable tools for biomarker discovery and drug screening, they have some significant limitations. At first, these cell lines grow in adhesion on a rigid surface with an elongated shape, creating a monolayer where interactions only occur between adjacent cells. But typical functions are altered, such as signaling, proliferation, and migration. In addition, due to the significantly limited sensitivity to drug treatment that can easily induce apoptosis, this frequently results in incorrectly promising several molecules that, when tested in vivo, fail to provide the same satisfying results. Furthermore, the currently commonly used cell line model cannot completely capture the features of primary tumors, thus running into obstacles in evaluating the treatment efficacy of candidate agents.

Advantages of Patient-derived Liver Cancer Organoid Models

In contrast, recently developed patient-derived organoid models overcome these limitations of 2D cultures, providing an unparalleled strategy for studying tumor heterogeneity and creating an opportunity to tailor therapies for individual patients.

• Liver cancer organoids show self-assembly and self-renewal capabilities, mimicking organ structure and conserving all essential parts of their respective in vivo tissue.
• They can be directly linked to a patient and to spatiotemporal information such as a specific tumor nodule or metastasis, or a specific time during the evolution of cancer in a patient.
• The organoids are polyclonal and are able to recapitulate transcriptional and histological features of the native tissues that are linked to cancer evolution, immune evasion, and resistance to oncostatic and targeted therapies.
• After a long-term expansion, the organoids robustly maintain heterogeneity.
• It’s easy to co-culture different cell types because of the appropriate extracellular matrix.

Applications

These patient-derived in vitro liver cancer organoid models can more accurately predict the therapeutic effect of drugs in vivo, which is of great significance in liver cancer research.

Fig.2 Applications of patient-derived liver cancer organoid models. (Creative Biolabs)

Related Services

Creative Biolabs is a global leader in providing 3D organoid models and related services to researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals. We are committed to providing high-quality preclinical drug discovery services listed below using our patient-derived liver cancer organoid model. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your project for professional assistance.

Related Sections:

• Patient-Derived Organoid (PDO) Model
• PDX-Derived Organoid (PDXO) Tumor Model